About Us

Since 1890, Dressed in white outfit and traditional Gandhi Cap, Mumbai Army of 5,000 Dabbawalas fulfilling the hunger of almost 200,000 Mumbaikar with home-cooked food that is lug between home and office daily. For more than a century our team have been part of this grime-ridden metropolis-of-dreams.

About 125 years back, a Parsi banker wanted to have home cooked food in office and gave this responsibility to the first ever Dabbawala. Many people liked the idea and the demand for Dabba delivery soared. It was all informal and individual effort in the beginning, but visionary Mahadeo Havaji Bachche saw the opportunity and started the lunch delivery service in its present team-delivery format with 100 Dabbawalas.

As the city grew, the demand for Dabba delivery grew too. The coding system created by our forefather is still prominent in 21st century. Initially it was simple colour coding but now since Mumbai is widely spread metro with 3 local train routes, our coding has also evolved into alpha numeric characters.

Transformational Framework

Our Work

Recognition and Accolades

In 2005, the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) featured a case study on the Mumbai Dabbawalas from a management perspective of logistics

The New York Times reported in 2007 that the 125-year-old Dabbawala industry continues to grow at a rate of 5â10% per year.

Mr Richard Branson actually travelled with us, like a Dabbawala and delivered a huge tiffin to his own employees at Virgin, Mumbai.

In 1998, Forbes Global magazine, conducted a quality assurance study on our operations and gave it a Six Sigma efficiency rating of 99.999999

ISO 9001:2000 certified by the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand.

Prince Charles visited us during his visit to India; he had to fit in with our schedule, since our timing was too precise to permit any flexibility. Charles also invited Dabbawalas to his wedding with Camilla Parker Bowles in London on 9 April 2005.